Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an x-ray apparatus for producing x-ray images of a patient, and in particular to such an x-ray apparatus having a positionadjustable x-ray tube, a patient support, and a positionadjustable pick-up system, with the image pick-up system including an x-ray image intensifier and a video camera coupled thereto, the output of the video camera being supplied to an image reproduction system for display.
Description of the Prior Art
An x-ray diagnostics installation is described in German No. OS 3 536 079 (corresponding to U.S. application Ser. No. 289,429 filed Dec. 23, 1988, which is a continuation of application 912,041 filed Sept. 24, 1986 (now abandoned), assigned to the same assignee as the present application and naming Heinz Kresse as inventor) wherein the system components, namely the x-ray tube the patient support, and image pick-up system, are mounted on robot arms so that component can be independently threedimensionally adjusted. In this known system, however, the video camera of the image pick-up system is arbitrarily aligned relative to other components, so that alignment of the resulting x-ray image to given conditions, such as a given reference, cannot be undertaken. It is important, however, for the physician to have the image shown on the display monitor to be in a position which he or she expects as an observer due to his or her position relative to the patient. In other words, it is undesirable for the physician to have to mentally translate the image displayed on the monitor to coincide approximately with his or her actual view of the patient. The most common translation of the image which must be undertaken in conventional systems is to rotate the image around the axis of a central ray of the x-ray tube.